ActiveBob.....It's always Raining!

I'm going to get right into it. I can't sleep. I have to be up at 7am tomorrow morning.....Eastern time. Which is 4am where I come from........which is EARLY!!!! I was up at 3:30am Pacific time to fly to Atlanta today :-)

I want to get some of the thoughts I have on video out of my head......maybe then I can go to sleep.

The top five selling video cameras on Amazon are Flip Video Cameras. Why? because they are affordable, they are simple, and they get the job done. I want something I can jump right into and have no problem using.........it would appear so does everyone else.

What are the major hurdles to starting to use video now? Cost? They have dramatically dropped. Afraid to learn the technology? We have hundreds of innovators here who will take the lead, learn how to do it, and then show you how.  

Google and Yahoo are both incorporating video results into their universal search results. The time is ripe to be ahead of the curve!!

You are a good agent, You preview the listings you show your clients. This weekend you have clients in from out of town (or from in town, doesn't matter) and they want to see 8 homes. You have talked with them at length and you understand that an open kitchen plan is important for the wife, the husband needs space in the garage to build shelves for his tools and the kids need a big back yard. Last year you would have previewed these homes and convinced them that only 6 fit what they wanted. You knew it was only two, but they really wanted to 'see' the other four. This year you took video of every home, sent it to them in advance and you all have determined there are only really two homes of the eight that fit their needs. Let's say the time it took me to prepare the videos to send them made the time you would have saved yourself showing the additional four homes a wash..........IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU......IT'S ABOUT THEM........you saved them the time of visiting four extra homes.

ActiveRain has a video editing and hosting solution coming soon. We have 5 ActiveRain members set to start testing it tomorrow. Our community is going to teach each other how to succeed with video. Why? Because that is the culture here.......we help each other succeed.

What kind of videos can you make? The video business card is an easy one. You're going to need one in the future. Client testimonials. Let your satisfied clients tell your next client why they should work with you. Your listing presentation. Put it out there so people know what to expect when you walk in the door. A CMA. You always come up with the right price, correct? Show them how. Local neighborhood information. You know why people choose to live in your community, show the next person who may choose to live there. This one has SOOO many possibilities. Parks, schools, businesses, tourist attractions, views, recreational options............it's almost endless.........(and I would venture to guess that you probably have a few more ideas in your head right now)

The video platform on ActiveRain will allow you to embed links into your video so that you can supplement that video by sending your viewer back to your written evaluation of what they are watching. 

Videos will be just as important in servicing the people that are already committed to working with you as they will be to earning the business of the next client. You must learn how to add value. Be their eyes. That is valuable!!

13 year old kids are making videos and uploading them to youtube. It is not hard!!

The videos you shoot are not movie quality. They are AUTHENTIC. People want authentic. If someone is going to buy a multi million dollar home from you, for goodness sake......pay to have high quality video done. If your buyer is a Gen Y first time home buyer.......he doesn't care about the production value.......he just wants to see the place from the comfort of the couch in his apartment. Understand that!

Tomorrow I sit on a video panel at the RETechSouth conference in Atlanta. I am not a video expert. But I do believe that video is the marketing wave of the future. I also believe that the members of ActiveRain have the unique position to band together and pull each other to the forefront of this marketing revolution. Together we will teach each other. Together we will mentor each other. Together we will critique each other. Together we will figure out how to utilize video to make the experience of our clients better. Why? Because that is our culture and our clients deserve it!

(You just got an unedited stream of my thoughts for tomorrow. No links, no pictures, just thoughts. I am not even going to read over it. I'm not going to put it in any order. I just needed to get it out of my head so I can go to SLEEP!!) 

For the last couple of months, every time I talk to someone on the phone who is just getting started with ActiveRain, I usually end my conversation by offering to send them a post that is a good compilation of what the heck ActiveRain is all about. There are a number of people who have written excellent posts like this, but the one I have bookmarked on my browser is this post by Brad Andersohn.

Over the last week, the opportunity presented itself to bring another team member into the fold. Actually, Brad and I created the opportunity. Since the day he joined ActiveRain as a member, February 25th, 2007 Brad has continually gone out of his way to reach out to other members and assist them in understanding the power of our network. On his sixth day on the network, Brad was already getting referrals. Within a month, Brad hosted a blogging 'how to/what is it' class for the local Realtor association in his area. His first ActiveRain instructional post aimed at helping newbies came only a few short weeks later. Since then, he has crafted many great posts aimed at teaching you about new technologies, exploring how to utilize existing ones to help your business and been an all around awesome contributor to our network. His recent post that worked a powerpoint presentations into his blog continued to push the envelope. (Don't worry, now that he's on the payroll, we'll make sure he gets the follow up 'How to insert a powerpoint in your blog' post up too)

It should go without saying that we are really excited to have him joining ActiveRain officially!!  (But I'll say it anyways......."We are EXCITED!!")

In mid February, Jonathan and I made a trip to San Francisco where we had dinner with a few members of the community. It was at this dinner that Brad pulled me aside and first expressed interest in joining the team. Brad wrote a great post about the magic of that particular evening, but he left out the part, that for me would end up being the most fruitful thing to come from that dinner. The seed had been planted. I think I can thank Jeff Turner for helping to water and nourish that seed. It was in a phone conversation a few weeks later between Jeff and Brad that Jeff asked Brad why he wasn't doing his passion. That conversation pushed Brad to follow up with me and see if we were looking to add to the team. 

Although at that particular time, we didn't necessarily have a specific role to fill (although we are looking for good programmers :-)) one of Jon's hiring philosophies is to find remarkable people and fit them into your organization. We certainly have room for growth and over the next couple of weeks Jon and I, with the help of Brad, carved out a great role for him here at ActiveRain. (OK, OK......it was Brad and I plotting behind the scenes, and me biding my time as I knew we have some stuff upcoming that Brad will be great with........and when the stars aligned, we presented it to Jon). You'll start to get a flavor of Brad's role here in the coming weeks and months as we work to perfect it as well. But just like Rich and Nicole and I, he is here to assist you with anything you need!

So without further ado...............Please welcome the next great addition to the ActiveRain team and family, Mr. Brad Andersohn 

(and of course, stop by and get Brad's version)